Pietro S. Nivola

Former Brookings Expert

Pietro Nivola was a senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution at the time of his passing in April 2017. The Institution's Governance Studies program has established an internship program in his name and memory. For more information or to donate to the Pietro S. Nivola Internship in Governance Studies, please contact Courtney Dunakin at cdunakin@brookings.edu or 202-797-6018.

Dr. Nivola was vice president and director of Governance Studies at Brookings between 2004 and 2008. He began at Brookings as a visiting fellow in 1988, and was appointed a senior fellow in 1993. Prior to that, he had been an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont, and in 1976-77 a lecturer in the department of government at Harvard University.

Nivola authored numerous books and articles on subjects ranging from energy regulation and environmental protection, to trade and industrial policy, urban problems, federalism, and American national politics. He is the author of Regulating Unfair Trade (Brookings, 1993) and, with Robert W. Crandall, The Extra Mile: Rethinking Energy Policy for Automotive Transportation (Brookings, 1995). Two of his earlier books were The Politics of Energy Conservation (Brookings, 1986) and The Urban Service Problem (Lexington Books/D.C. Heath, 1979). With David H. Rosenbloom, Nivola was also co-editor of the widely adopted text Classic Readings in American Politics, first published by St. Martin’s Press in 1986. In 1997 Nivola produced the Brookings conference volume Comparative Disadvantages? Social Regulations and the Global Economy (Brookings, 1997). His other works include Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America (Brookings, 1999); Managing Green Mandates: Local Rigors of U.S. Environmental Regulation (with Jon A. Shields) published in 2001 by the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies; Tense Commandments: Federal Prescriptions and City Problems (Brookings, 2002); and Agenda for the Nation (Brookings 2003), a volume co-edited with Henry J. Aaron and James M. Lindsay. His latest books, co-edited with David W. Brady of the Hoover Institution, are Red and Blue Nation? Volume I: Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics (Brookings/Hoover, 2006) and Red and Blue Nation? Volume II: Consequences and Correction of America’s Polarized Politics (Brookings/Hoover, 2008).

Nivola received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He also holds an M.C.P. from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Nivola was awarded Harvard's Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, and was a Samuel Andrew Stouffer Fellow at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of Harvard and M.I.T. His work has been supported by grants or fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Alex C. Walker Foundation, the Century Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Pietro Nivola was a senior fellow emeritus at the Brookings Institution at the time of his passing in April 2017. The Institution’s Governance Studies program has established an internship program in his name and memory. For more information or to donate to the Pietro S. Nivola Internship in Governance Studies, please contact Courtney Dunakin at cdunakin@brookings.edu or 202-797-6018.

Dr. Nivola was vice president and director of Governance Studies at Brookings between 2004 and 2008. He began at Brookings as a visiting fellow in 1988, and was appointed a senior fellow in 1993. Prior to that, he had been an associate professor of political science at the University of Vermont, and in 1976-77 a lecturer in the department of government at Harvard University.

Nivola authored numerous books and articles on subjects ranging from energy regulation and environmental protection, to trade and industrial policy, urban problems, federalism, and American national politics. He is the author of Regulating Unfair Trade (Brookings, 1993) and, with Robert W. Crandall, The Extra Mile: Rethinking Energy Policy for Automotive Transportation (Brookings, 1995). Two of his earlier books were The Politics of Energy Conservation (Brookings, 1986) and The Urban Service Problem (Lexington Books/D.C. Heath, 1979). With David H. Rosenbloom, Nivola was also co-editor of the widely adopted text Classic Readings in American Politics, first published by St. Martin’s Press in 1986. In 1997 Nivola produced the Brookings conference volume Comparative Disadvantages? Social Regulations and the Global Economy (Brookings, 1997). His other works include Laws of the Landscape: How Policies Shape Cities in Europe and America (Brookings, 1999); Managing Green Mandates: Local Rigors of U.S. Environmental Regulation (with Jon A. Shields) published in 2001 by the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies; Tense Commandments: Federal Prescriptions and City Problems (Brookings, 2002); and Agenda for the Nation (Brookings 2003), a volume co-edited with Henry J. Aaron and James M. Lindsay. His latest books, co-edited with David W. Brady of the Hoover Institution, are Red and Blue Nation? Volume I: Characteristics and Causes of America’s Polarized Politics (Brookings/Hoover, 2006) and Red and Blue Nation? Volume II: Consequences and Correction of America’s Polarized Politics (Brookings/Hoover, 2008).

Nivola received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He also holds an M.C.P. from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Nivola was awarded Harvard’s Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, and was a Samuel Andrew Stouffer Fellow at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of Harvard and M.I.T. His work has been supported by grants or fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Alex C. Walker Foundation, the Century Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Could it be that, for all the laments about America's 'gridlocked' and 'broken' political system, it actually appears to have done a better job contending with the Great Recession and its aftermath than do many other advanced democracies?